Francis Bacon - The Essays 1601
OF ADVERSITY
It was an high
speech of Seneca (after
the manner of the Stoics),
that
the good things,
which belong to prosperity,
are to be wished;
but the
good things,
that belong to adversity,
are to be admired.
Bona rerum
secundarum optabilia; adversarum mirabilia.
Certainly if miracles be
the
command over nature,
they appear most in adversity.
It is yet a
higher
speech of his,
than the other (much
too high for a heathen),
It is true
greatness,
to have in one
the frailty of a man,
and the security of a God.
Vere magnum habere fragilitatem hominis, securitatem Dei.
This would have
done better in poesy,
where transcendences are more allowed.
And the poets
indeed
have been busy with it;
for it is in effect the thing,
which
figured in that
strange fiction of the ancient poets,
which seemeth not to
be without mystery; nay,
and to have some
approach to the state
of a
Christian; that Hercules,
when he went to unbind Prometheus (by
whom human
nature is represented),
sailed the length of the great ocean,
in an
earthen pot or pitcher;
lively describing Christian resolution,
that
saileth in the
frail bark of the flesh,
through the waves of the world.
But to speak in a mean.
The virtue of prosperity, is temperance;
the
virtue of adversity, is fortitude;
which in morals is
the more heroical
virtue.
Prosperity is the blessing
of the Old Testament;
adversity is the
blessing of the New;
which carrieth the greater benediction,
and the
clearer revelation of God's favor.
Yet even in the Old Testament,
if you
listen to David's harp,
you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols;
and the pencil of
the Holy Ghost hath
labored more in describing
the
afflictions of Job,
than the felicities of Solomon.
Prosperity is not
without
many fears and distastes;
and adversity is not
without comforts
and hopes.
We see in needle-works and embroideries,
it is more pleasing
to
have a lively work,
upon a sad and solemn ground,
than to have a
dark and
melancholy work,
upon a lightsome ground:
judge therefore of the
pleasure
of the heart,
by the pleasure of the eye.
Certainly virtue is like
precious odors,
most fragrant when they are incensed, or crushed:
for
prosperity doth best discover vice,
but adversity doth best discover
virtue.
- Impressum
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